In contrast to the situation in a laboratory, the study of the solar atmosphere has to be pursued without direct access to the physical conditions of interest. Information is therefore incomplete and uncertain and inference methods need to be employed to diagnose the physical conditions and processes. One of such methods, solar atmospheric seismology, makes use of observed and theoretically predicted properties of waves to infer plasma and magnetic field properties. A recent development in solar atmospheric seismology consists in the use of inversion and model comparison methods based on Bayesian analysis. In this paper, the philosophy and methodology of Bayesian analysis are first explained. Then, we provide an account of what has been achieved so far from the application of these techniques to solar atmospheric seismology and a prospect of possible future extensions.
Slow magnetoacoustic waves represent an important tool for probing the solar coronal plasma. We quantitatively assess the applicability of the weak thermal conduction theory to coronal seismology by slow waves. We numerically model the linear standing slow wave in a 1D coronal loop, with field-aligned thermal conduction $κ_\parallel$ as a free parameter and no restrictions on its efficiency. The time variations of the perturbed plasma parameters, obtained numerically with full conductivity, are treated as potential observables and analysed with the standard data processing techniques. The slow…
We review novel data analysis techniques developed or adapted for the field of coronal seismology. We focus on methods from the last ten years that were developed for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging observations of the solar corona, as well as for light curves from radio and X-ray. The review covers methods for the analysis of transverse and longitudinal waves; spectral analysis of oscillatory signals in time series; automated detection and processing of large data sets; empirical mode decomposition; motion magnification; and reliable detection, including the most common pitfalls causing art…
Modern observatories have revealed the ubiquitous presence of magnetohydrodynamic waves in the solar corona. The propagating waves (in contrast to the standing waves) are usually originated in the lower solar atmosphere which makes them particularly relevant to coronal heating. Furthermore, open coronal structures are believed to be the source regions of solar wind, therefore, the detection of MHD waves in these structures is also pertinent to the acceleration of solar wind. Besides, the advanced capabilities of the current generation telescopes have allowed us to extract important coronal pro…
Solar filaments are an intriguing phenomenon, like cool clouds suspended in the hot corona. Similar structures exist in the intergalactic medium as well. Despite being a long-studied topic, solar filaments have continually attracted intensive attention because of their link to the coronal heating, coronal seismology, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In this review paper, by combing through the solar filament-related work done in the past decade, we discuss several controversial topics, such as the fine structures, dynamics, magnetic configurations, and helicity of filaments. Wi…
Solar coronal loops are commonly subject to oscillations. Observations of coronal oscillations are used to infer physical properties of the coronal plasma using coronal seismology. Excitation and evolution of oscillations in coronal loops is typically studied using highly idealised models of magnetic flux-tubes. In order to improve our understanding of coronal oscillations, it is necessary to consider the effect of realistic magnetic field topology and evolution. We study excitation and evolution of coronal oscillations in three-dimensional self-consistent simulations of solar atmosphere spann…
Recent observational and theoretical studies indicate that the damping of solar coronal loop oscillations depends on the oscillation amplitude. We consider two mechanisms, linear resonant absorption and a nonlinear damping model. We confront theoretical predictions from these models with observed data in the plane of observables defined by the damping ratio and the oscillation amplitude. The structure of the Bayesian evidence in this plane displays a clear separation between the regions where each model is more plausible relative to the other. There is qualitative agreement between the regions…
The cross sections of solar coronal loops are suggested to be rarely circular. We examine linear kink oscillations in straight, density-enhanced, magnetic cylinders with elliptical cross-sections by solving the three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic equations from an initial-value-problem perspective. Motivated by relevant eigen-mode analyses, we distinguish between two independent polarizations, one along the major axis (the M-modes) and the other along the minor one (the m-modes). We find that, as happens for coronal loops with circular cross-sections, the apparent damping of the transverse d…
Impulsively excited wave trains are of considerable interest in solar coronal seismology. To our knowledge, however, it remains to examine the three-dimensional (3D) dispersive propagation of impulsive kink waves in straight, field-aligned, symmetric, low-beta, slab equilibria that are structured only in one transverse direction. We offer a study here, starting with an analysis of linear oblique kink modes from an eigenvalue problem perspective. Two features are numerically found for continuous and step structuring alike, one being that the group and phase velocities may lie on opposite sides …
Solar extreme ultraviolet (EUV) waves are spectacular propagating disturbances with EUV enhancements in annular shapes in the solar corona. These EUV waves carry critical information about the coronal magnetised plasma that can shed light on the elusive physical parameters (e.g. the magnetic field strength) by global solar coronal magneto-seismology. EUV waves are closely associated with a wide range of solar atmospheric eruptions, from violent flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) to less energetic plasma jets or mini-filament eruptions. However, the physical nature and driving mechanism o…
Characterized by cyclic axisymmetric perturbations to both the magnetic and fluid parameters, magnetohydrodynamic fast sausage modes (FSMs) have proven useful for solar coronal seismology given their strong dispersion. This review starts by summarizing the dispersive properties of the FSMs in the canonical configuration where the equilibrium quantities are transversely structured in a step fashion. With this preparation we then review the recent theoretical studies on coronal FSMs, showing that the canonical dispersion features have been better understood physically, and further exploited seis…
